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19 March 2018

Purple Loosetrife Soap

While I wasn’t around for much of the Mother’s Day hype online, I do remember seeing pictures of a whole array of soaps that were coming out as part of this year’s seasonal range. Although I remember thinking how beautiful each of them looked, there was a small part of me that was disappointed that some of them hadn’t been made into other formats instead. Upon using Purple Loosestrife for the first time, I ate my words.A trio of three exquisite floral syrups have gone into making this soap, and both the fragrance it offers and the way it works with your skin is a testament to each of these three components. If you love violet scented cosmetics, this is one you have to try for yourself.Rose, hibiscus and lavender are three of the main ingredients here: each one adding something wonderful to the overall fragrance, and making this perhaps the greatest smelling soap that Lush have brought out this year. The rose adds a floral sweetness without the usual powdery note that the component is often used for in other products; the hibiscus adds a slightly acidic fruity floral element, although this is definitely the most subtle of all three ingredients; the lavender adds a natural but subtle herbal layer to the mix.Together, these three ingredients intertwine with both the cananga oil (which offers a gentle woodiness to ground the aroma) and the violet leaf absolute, to produce a rich but very light and airy violet aroma - one that shares its scent with Daddy O Shampoo.From the first sniff, it was obvious that the latter ingredient was the most dominant component in this soap - offering a wonderful delicate violet aroma, with a warm woody layer underneath. It’s such a beautiful smell, easily one of my favourite violet smells from Lush because it’s so beautifully rich, yet at the same time there is something soft and hazy about it as well. I really appreciated the fact that I could smell all of the different layers when I was using this soap in the shower, and if anything, this is probably the best example of this fragrance that I have sampled so far.In the shower, Loosestrife is so easy to use - lathering up like a dream to produce a creamy lather to massage across your body. I was amazed by how silky-soft the bar felt between my hands, and this feeling continued after I had towelled myself down.As far as soaps go, this is very moisturising, and may even be a little more nourishing on the skin than some of Lush’s most recent Naked Shower Gels. You may feel the familiar tautness on your skin after you’ve rinsed the suds off of your skin. However, you’ll notice how velvety smooth you are one you are dry and out of the shower. I used this across my whole body and found that there wasn’t even one area of my body that felt like it needed to be moisturised afterwards.My only gripe against PurpleLoosestrife Soap is that it shrinks very quickly, even when you attempt to keep it out of the way of the running tap. After using this only 4-5 times, I found that the bar had significantly shrunk and I wouldn’t envisage that it would last even a month if you used it daily.Having said that, the fragrance of this wonderful product lasted for a good while on my skin afterwards and it made me realise how much I would love more violet-dominated perfumes to be made by Lush themselves. The scent of this (alongside the beautiful design) would make this a beautiful hand soap in any dish - especially one that you’d like your guests to comment on after using it. However, I would say that this soap would be wasted if it was only used in this way. This is one I would definitely buy again, although I’m not opposed to seeing this fragrance being made into a liquid shower gel instead, if I had a choice. A wonderful present to give your mother this Mother’s Day, or simply a beautiful soap to enjoy for yourself.Quantitative Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Propylene Glycol, Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, Organic Castor Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Perfume, Rose Syrup, Hibiscus Syrup, Lavender Syrup, Violet Leaf Absolute, Rose Absolute, Bergamot Oil, Cananga Oil, Glycerine, Titanium Dioxide, Citric Acid, Sodium Bicarbonate, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Tin Oxide, *Limonene, Alpha-Isomethyl ionone, Benzyl Alcohol, Coumarin, Hexyl Cinnamal, Isoeugenol, Colour 77491, Colour 77492, Colour 77007, Colour 47005:1, Colour 42090:2.Vegan?: Yes.2018 Price:£5.95 each.Year Or Original Release: 2018.